BOINC depends on various software to build, test, and run.

Operating systems

The server components run on flavors of Unix. We develop on Solaris 2.6-2.9, Red Hat 8, and Debian Linux stable and unstable, so those currently work out-of-the-box. Other Unix-like systems should work without too much configuration.

Some BOINC server components (namely the feeder and scheduling server) use shared memory. On hosts where these run, the operating system must have shared memory enabled, with a maximum segment size of at least 32 MB. How to do this depends on the operating system; some information is here.

Other software

Required for compiling:

GNU C++ 2.95 or 3.0 - 3.4
Other GNU development tools: gmake, gzip, etc.

Required on the database server:

MySQL server 3.23+ or 4.0+ (package mysql-server). Note: Transactions are only supported by MySQL 4.0+; to use MySQL 3.23, disable <use_transactions/> in config.xml

After installing and running the server, grant permissions for your own account and for the account under which Apache runs ('nobody' in the following; may be different on your machine):

    mysql -u root
    grant all on *.* to yourname@localhost;
    grant all on *.* to yourname;
    grant all on *.* to nobody@localhost;
    grant all on *.* to nobody;

Required on the master/scheduler server(s):

Apache or other webserver (package apache2 or apache)
PHP 4.0 (package php4)
MySQL client (package mysql-client)
Python 2.2+ (package python2.3 or python2.2)
- Python module MySQLdb 0.9.2 (0.9.1 currently won't work; see installation instructions) (package python-mysqldb)
- Python module xml (part of most Python distributions; package python-xml)

The test suite simulates all servers and client on a single machine, so to run make check you need most of the usual server and client software:

MySQL server with permissions to create databases
MySQL client
Python with modules as above
Apache and PHP: can be used but not required

Optional, required only if you change */Makefile.am:

automake 1.7+
autoconf 2.5+

On Debian Linux you can install all of the above software using

apt-get install g++ python python-mysqldb python-xml mysql-server mysql-client apache php4 automake autoconf

Windows client software

Required for compiling:

Microsoft Visual C++ 7.0

Required for creating install packages:

InstallShield 5.5

Macintosh client software

Required for compiling and creating install packages:

Development Level PPC Macintosh running OS X 10.1 or later.
July 2002 Mac OS X Developer Tools.
Installer Vise Lite 3.6 SDK(?)